Cuomo on Koch: “His personality was as big as New York”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo remembered former New York City Mayor Ed Koch as a man who was “aggressive about what government could do,” praising the late mayor as someone with a “personality … as big as New York.”

In an interview on WGDJ-AM in Albany, Cuomo said Koch’s time in office was a “very instructive case study to me.”

“He was very activist in making the government operate. We talk about performance—it was about performance, it was about integrity, attracting the best and the brightest,” Cuomo said. “He made government fun and cool again. People loved to be in the city government with him. There was an energy and a buzz about being in city government; you were fighting the good fight.”

Cuomo, whose father Mario lost to Koch in the 1977 Democratic mayoral primary, compared the one-time political foes to boxing greats Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier. (Mario Cuomo later defeated Koch in a 1982 gubernatorial primary.)

“They were different styles, different personalities, different people,” Andrew Cuomo said. “But they really were just beautiful to watch. They were both a high point of the profession.”

Cuomo, like many others, said he would remember Koch for his larger-than-life personality. He said he spoke to Koch two days ago after the former mayor was admitted to the hospital. Koch, Cuomo said, was “all excited about the gun bill”—a set of new state gun-control laws signed by Cuomo earlier this month.